Additional Director-General of Police (Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network System) and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety Praveen Sood on Saturday claimed crime and accident rates had drastically reduced in recent months owing to modernisation of the police.
He said the use of surveillance cameras and BlackBerry smartphones had led to an increase in the number of violations registered. The amount collected as fine shot up from Rs. 19 crore in 2007 to Rs. 51 crore in 2011.
Besides, such enhanced enforcement had resulted in better discipline and a decline in fatal accidents from 981 in 2007 to 757 in 2011; non-fatal accidents involving injuries came down from 8,426 in 2007 to 6,024 in 2011, he said.
The ADGP was speaking at a function to launch ‘Technology-driven traffic management and enforcement’ programme in Belgaum, Bellary and Gulbarga districts.
Challenge
According to Mr. Sood, the real challenge of tackling road fatalities and injuries was in semi-urban areas and highways.
He said the Commissionerate of Traffic and Road Safety had installed 45 surveillance cameras in Gulbarga, Bellary and Belgaum. Last year, the cameras had been installed in Hubli-Dharwad, Shimoga and Mangalore. This would help in better monitoring and management of traffic in these cities, he said.
Besides, BlackBerry-assisted traffic enforcement, operational in Bangalore since 2008, had been extended to the entire State from July 2012.With this system, the State had become the first to have complete technology-driven, paperless traffic enforcement, Mr. Sood added.
